As part of the 22nd annual conference of the Northern European Network for Wood Science and Engineering (WSE), a training seminar for students and early-career researchers entitled “Training School: Importance of Wood Performance, Protection, and Longevity in the Presence of Climate Change” was held on 14 September (seminar programme). The seminar was jointly organised by the Latvian State Forest Research Institute “Silava” and the Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry.
Approximately 40 master’s and doctoral students and early-career researchers from ten European countries — Austria, Denmark, France, Estonia, Ireland, Latvia, Poland, Finland, Sweden and Germany — took part in the seminar. Participants learned about current research on forests, wood and climate change, and shared their experiences.
In the afternoon, participants visited LSFRI “Silava”, where they explored the Institute’s laboratories and research infrastructure and attended several presentations.
Gundega Done and Zane Lībiete presented the results of the Forest4LV research programme.
Gundega Done delivered a presentation entitled “Balancing Forestry and Game Management”, while Zane Lībiete presented “Forest Ecosystem Services: Evaluation and Indicators”.
Andis Lazdiņš discussed the role of forests and wood products in carbon sequestration and climate policy, presenting the latest developments in the PeatTransform research project in a presentation entitled “PeatTransform Project – The Most Significant Upcoming Changes in the GHG Inventory for the LULUCF Sector”.
Aldis Butlers explored the role of biomass and harvested wood products in climate policy in his presentation, “Biomass, Harvested Wood Products and Climate Policy”.
Meanwhile, Dagnija Lazdiņa and Mārtiņš Zeps led a laboratory tour and a practical session on growing and selecting high-quality trees, as well as nursery techniques. They demonstrated how the findings of the Forest4LV research programme can be applied in practice.
The training seminar programme was developed as part of the Forest4LV activities, while the seminar itself was organised in cooperation with Forest Route partners. This kind of international collaboration gives early-career researchers the opportunity to learn from the experience of different countries and establish new professional contacts.
The event was supported by SNS (Nordic Forest Research) and the Nordic Council of Ministers.